Giuliani says he is limiting himself to one debate or forum appearance each month.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giulianisaid Wednesday that he'll only participate in one debate or forum each month because, as he says, if you try to pick and choose "you end up insulting more people than you really intend to."

"I've been invited to like a dozen debates sometimes on the same day, and you just can't do them all. You just can't," the former New York City mayor said at a stop in Des Moines. "We've tried to have a rule of one per month, and the first one we accept. Then we've got to say 'no' to all the rest, because if I go to all the debates, I can't run my campaign."

Giuliani says it would be too hard to raise the money needed and impossible to make all the "political points that you want to make" if he were to accept more invitations to multiple-candidate events.

At a town hall meeting on the campus of Drake University, Giuliani was asked whether or not he would participate in the nationally televised AARP/Iowa Public Television 'Divided We Fail' GOP forum on October 25. So far Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee have confirmed. According to the forum's website, the other campaigns have said "they don't know."

"If we said 'no' to it, it does not at all have to do with your organization," Giuliani continued in his answer. "It has to do with the fact that we already agreed to a debate."

The 'Divided We Fail' Democratic forum back in September included all the top-tier Democrats except Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

soundoff(29 Responses)

All Giuliani does in debates anyway is make silly cuts at other canadites. I have heard little from him about the positive aspects of his platform. He just throughs mud because he doesn't have ground to stand on.

Giuliani can only talk about 9/11 or Hillary in any debate, nothing changes. And to use the excuse of not accepting debates because it's impossible to make all the "political points". Doesn't sound like he's a "multi-task" person which certainly doesn't qualify him to be a president. Rudy sounds like someone planning a dinner party.